Wii U's eShop friendlier for devs, accounts limited to single console

Each console's 12 accounts can only be accessed from that system

The Wii U is an exciting step into a connected home console era for Nintendo, though it's already had some stumbling points. The system's eShop is a perfect example, with both good and bad news emerging early for consumers eager to get their digital on.

Good newsThe Wii U's eShop is much more manageable for developers, according to an IGN interview with Trine 2 developer Frozenbyte.

"We have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys," said Frozenbyte marketing manager Mikael Haveri. "The step to this is purely from Nintendo's side and they clearly see that [their] previous installments have not been up to par. We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly."

Haveri also said Nintendo plans to be much more accepting of updates for eShop titles, though it will still require an approval process. This will hopefully put it somewhere between nigh-constant downloads and the Fez update debacle.

Bad newsIf you want to make liberal use of that friendlier eShop, however, you'll want to take good care of your console: all Nintendo Network accounts created on a console are permanently tied to that specific system, according to GamesIndustry International.

On top of that, each console can only be used to create 12 accounts. With each one tied to it permanently, that means pre-owned consoles may be inherently limited by their previous owners' usage.

While Nintendo left some wiggle room in its support literature for future revisions, this means all downloadable content is staying put on the Wii U used to purchase it.